Complete the following statement . . . Sandon is ________

We were on the road again, but I didn’t think I’d write about it this time as it was more of a personal trip. But then we ended up crossing something off my former “non-existent list” that has been on there for a couple of years, so here we are!

It all started when we set off in Hank to head home to the Hat for a visit.

We camped in the campground, stayed with family and friends, had a lot of good visits, and then rounded it out soaking up some magic at my favourite place in all of Alberta.

Since B-Rod still had vacation days and we were close to the border, we figured we’d cross over, and slowly make our way back while taking the Going to the Sun road in Montana. Unfortunately, as we thought about heading to the border, we realized we had a freezer full of sausage we were unwilling to surrender (let’s just say I’m not a huge meat eater, but I was willing to sacrifice an adventure for this sausage). Fortunately we had a freezer full of sausage because when we got home, we realized ONE of us had forgotten to bring their passport despite being the one to remind both of us to bring our passports just in case!!!

So we headed back in the same direction we came, until around the halfway point B-Rod decided to veer off in a new direction, and I realized . . . . . there was an area in that direction which I had seen in pictures the last couple of years that I really wanted to go to. I knew nothing about it, I barely remembered its name, I just knew that I had seen pics of a bunch of old abandoned buses in the middle of nowhere and I simply had to go there! 😆

So we loaded Hank on a short ferry, hit some hot springs, then headed for Sandon, BC.

Turns out the buses have a pretty interesting story!

Electric trolley buses like this were used throughout a few cities in Canada in the 1950’s & 1960’s. Most of this particular fleet was from Vancouver (I believe the two different coloured ones on the end were from Calgary).

Prior to Expo 86 coming to Vancouver, the city decided the buses were too ugly, so they shipped all 230-240 of them off to a storage facility in Surrey, BC. Over the years, they tried to sell them to third world countries without success. So in 2001, they were sent to the shredder. A local family in the Sandon area found out about them, wanted to preserve the history, and managed to save 16 of them which is how they ended up in Sandon.

So not only do the Sandon buses attract people like me who saw pictures and were simply curious, but it also attracts bus enthusiasts as this fleet makes up the largest collection of Brill trolleys in the world.

Turns out Sandon has a bit more there than buses. It actually has a pretty interesting history.

At various points in its history, it’s been a bustling wealthy town, one of the Japanese internment camps during the war, the site of numerous disasters and today a ghost town where only a handful of people still live.

Sandon is also known for its hydroelectric generation station that has been running since 1897!!

Sandon is a really pretty, peaceful area, the people that live and work/volunteer in town are AWESOME and the only regret I have is that we didn’t realize in time that you can camp there! Next time Hank! Next time!

So, now that you know about Sandon, how would YOU fill in the blank in the title? I feel it was summed up best when I went into an outhouse by one of the buses and the only words scrawled on the walls of the can were . . . . .